Stuck
by BlankPage-CleanSlate
Summary: Amy and the rest of the precinct have gone missing. It's up to Jake to find them. But where are they? And what kind of situation does this put them in? Disclaimer: inspired by one of the cast's Instagram posts from a while ago.


**A/N: Hello everyone. I started watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine this summer and I absolutely fell in love with the show and it's characters. So, I figured I'd write a story about it. This story is based off what I think could have happened from a situation Joe Lo Truglio posted about on his Instagram. I won't tell you about it yet though cause that'll ruin the story ;) First Brooklyn Nine-Nine story by me, here we go! Enjoy!**

* * *

When Jake left the precinct to investigate a lead that day he hadn't expected the precinct to completely fall apart. He'd figured he'd catch the guy after an epic foot chase ending in a creepy but cool abandoned building, and make a completely dope entrance into the bull pen delivering the perfect snappy line about the perp. Everyone in the squad would be even more in awe of him. Even Gina. Ok, maybe not Gina, she was impossible to impress, but Holt would at least tell Jake he was proud of him, and Gina might actually look up from her phone. But as per usual, Jake was not that lucky.

When Jake got to the precinct the officer at the front desk was on the phone, but that wasn't too uncommon. Jake pressed the button for the elevator a few times but nothing happened. So the elevator was busy. Jake looked at his watch. If he wanted to make good on his word to Holt that 'this case will be solved before you even have time to eat your boring nutrient filled lunch,' he'd have to be back in the bull pen by 12:15 sharp. Holt had been concerned after that comment that Jake didn't eat a healthy lunch, but he was a few years too late for that concern. While it was true that a few years ago Jake's lunches consisted of pure junk food, he couldn't get away with that now that he was married to Amy.

Jake looked at his watch again. So, the elevator was being really slow. He only had two minutes to get upstairs to the bull pen. _Screw it,_ he thought. _I guess we're gonna have to take the stairs. Not as cool as stoically standing there while the elevator doors open, but if I can kick open the doors open really dramatically…_ Stairs it was. After walking the perp up a few stairs Jake dramatically flung the doors out of his was to see…. no one. Well, not no one. There were a few perps in the holding cell and some beat cops and civilians, but no one important was there.

"Hey Donald! Where is everyone?" Jake called out to one of the beat cops.

The beat cop looked at him. "It's _David."_

Jake made a face at him. He wasn't very good at remembering the beat cops' names. That was Amy's job. But he was sure he knew this one. "Are you sure?"

'David' rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'm sure. I don't know where the Captain or the detectives are though."

Jake let out a grunt of frustration. This was not good. Either something was really wrong, or they were having a secret meeting without him. Jake let out a little gasp. _What if this was about the Halloween heist? There was only a month and a half to go before the heist. Maybe Holt was convincing them to team up against him?!_ Unlikely, the captain was too proud to collaborate with the other detectives at this point. He wouldn't want to share his last heist victory (that wouldn't happen if Jake had anything to say) before he left to be commissioner. But just in case Jake decided he would go visit Amy downstairs to see if she knew what was going on.

Jake dropped off the perp in the holding cells and headed to the elevator. He pushed the button and waited. Nothing.

"The elevator's broken _detective."_ Donald -no David- sneered at Jake. Wow, he was not a fan. Jake looked at him. What was his problem? Oh right. David had been a casualty of Jake's for the last Jimmy Jab games. Tackling someone into a desk, by accident, and breaking their computer, again by accident, could lead to a grudge or two.

Jake took the stairs down to the beat cops' level. This was too many stairs in one day. He would need to get on Holt to install a second elevator in the precinct. When he got there, Jake headed to Officer Jensen's desk. The bull pen on this level, was luckily filled, so it couldn't be anything too serious, but Jake was still worried about the location of his squad. They often performed dangerous operations without the rest of the precinct for back up. It just didn't make sense that no one had tried to reach him. Charles definitely should have texted him by now asking him how amazing his case was going or if he was making any new friends with the other cops on the case.

Officer Jensen interrupted Jake's train of thought by clearing his throat. "Do you need me to help you with anything Detective Peralta? I can file any evidence or report you need me too. Just say the word and I will do it. Anything for sergeant Santiago's husband."

There it was. The sucking up that was almost on par with Amy's. He wasn't quite as thorough or persistent with it, and he definitely wasn't as awkward about it, but Jensen was almost as desperate to be in good standings with Amy, as Amy was with Holt. He wasn't nearly as cute doing it though, Jake thought with a smile. "Yeah, can you tell me where Amy is?"

Jensen looked down. "I'm really sorry Detective Peralta, but I don't know where Sergeant Santiago is. I haven't seen her since she went upstairs to brief Captain Holt on some of our statistics."

A million thoughts were racing through Jake's head by now. None of the detectives were upstairs right now, and Amy was definitely with them wherever they were. What if there was something major going on with one of the members. But he would have been notified about it? Wouldn't he? Jake mumbled out a quick thanks to Jensen and raced back to his floor. He needed to figure out where everyone was and quickly. He called Amy. No answer. This wasn't too alarming, Amy usually put her phone on silent for any important case work or meetings.

He tried Charles. No answer again. This was more worrying. Charles had a special ringtone for Jake and Charles loved to talk to Jake. He got mad at himself whenever he missed a call from him. Jake had tried to tell him it wasn't that important, but Charles had argued back. It went something along the lines of: 'No Jakey, it is my duty as your best friend to always be there for you. What if you're in trouble? No, you're too cool to get in a situation you can't handle. What if you get in a fight with Amy and need emotional support? No, you two are America's dream couple. What if you need my culinary advice…' And so on until Jake got him to focus on something else.

Jake tried to call Gina this time. Still no answer. Now it was time to panic. Gina literally always had her phone on her. The precinct could be burning down, and Gina would be talking about it to her followers on social media.

Jake was stumped _. Where the hell is everyone?_

* * *

(Two and a half hours earlier…)

Amy always loved when she got to report to Holt about her squad. Don't het her wrong, she was so proud of the fact that she was a sergeant now and she got to command her own squad. And the squad she had was amazing, they were all good cops and they respected her, but Amy still missed her old squad a lot. They were her friends, no her family. It's not like she didn't still see them often, they worked in the same building still and they hung out at Shaw's bar all the time. But things were different now. Amy was the odd one out. She couldn't participate in and laugh at the shenanigans of the Nine-Nine's detective squad anymore, she just got to hear about them after the fact. When she was upstairs talking to Captain Holt, she could witness whatever was happening in the Bull Pen at the time. Also, there was the fact that Amy got to receive one-on-one time with her mentor, and brag about the achievements of her squad.

The elevator doors opened slowly with a loud creak, but it didn't phase Amy. The precinct building was old, everyone knew that, the door just needed to be oiled or something like that. Amy grinned at the familiar sight in front of her. Rosa was interrogating a perp with Charles, Gina was talking to Terry about something while she propped her feet up on her desk and typed away at her phone. Even the sight of Hitchcock and Scully comparing mysterious bumps on their feet, as gross as it was, was a reminder of the good times in this room. Jake wasn't at his desk, but he'd been texting her with an excessive amount of emojis about the case he was working so she wasn't worried.

Amy strode over to Gina's desk. "Hi, Terry, Gina. Is Holt in his office?"

The aforementioned civilian administrator did not look up from her phone. "Mmm hmm, but I would not go in right now girl. El Cap-i-tain is supposed to start a meeting soon."

Amy frowned. "Gina, that meeting is with me."

"Mmm, no," Gina shook her head. "I would know if the meeting was with you."

"Really?" Amy felt hopeful. Maybe Gina did care about their friendship more than she let on.

"Of course. I bought a beige highlighter, so I could remember when the meetings are scheduled with you."

Or not. Amy sighed. "Gina, you don't _have_ a schedule."

She chuckled as she looked away from her phone to stare Amy dead in the eyes. "That's what you think."

Terry stood up. "Ok enough! Santiago, just go in."

"Yes, Terry." Amy knocked on the door to Holt's office while Gina mouthed the words 'Not on the schedule' to her.

Captain Holt opened the door for Amy. "Ahh Sergeant Santiago. Please, come in." Holt took a seat behind his desk and Amy sat in the chair in front of him. "How has your squad performed this month? I want all the details. The she-devil, Wuntch, has been breathing down my neck with her dragon breath about the statistics of this precinct. She wants to use her authority over me for as long as she can until I am promoted above her." Holt's face was one of satisfaction as he talked about finally being promoted above his long-time nemesis.

Amy pulled out the binder she had prepared specially for this meeting. She took out several laminated graphs and spreadsheets. "Well sir, as you can see from figures 1 and 4….."

The meeting was by all accounts a success. Amy had managed to make it through the meeting with minimal amounts of awkwardness, though she did start panicking when she thought he was replacing Amy as a mentee with the new detective they'd hired. Holt reassured her that they were barley half way through the mentorship and reminded her that the precinct hadn't actually hired a new detective yet. "Besides Santiago, your work as a sergeant thus far has been exemplary. I couldn't replace you with any old detective now. Would Beethoven return to composing for a single instrument after composing for an entire orchestra?"

"Ummmm, no?"

After leaving the office Amy did one of her signature dances. She couldn't help it. She was just so happy that the Captain was impressed with her work. The rest of the squad didn't even notice her dancing at this point anyways.

"Santiago, when you're done flailing your body about, would you mind coming with me to One Police Plaza to show Wuntch our precinct's results. She can argue with me all she wants, but she can't argue with your facts and laminated spread sheets without looking like the fool that she is."

Amy felt her cheeks turn red. Someone did notice her dancing. But she would never turn down the captain. Of course Sir! I would be more than gladly to go with you." Holt raised an eyebrow at her. "Err, I mean, I would be happy very to help." Amy could feel the blood draining from her face. She thought she'd mostly left the 'super awkward, unable to function around Holt phase.' "I'm just going to come," she finished meekly.

"Maybe I don't want you at this meeting."

"NO!" Amy interrupted desperately. She'd started today by impressing Holt, she wasn't going to blow it now. "Let me come with you sir, I will blow Wuntch right out of the water with my spread sheets."

"That's what I like to hear. Gina, you can come with us."

Gina stared at them. "Noooo. Don't make me do that. You were finally about to leave so I could use your office as a safe space to practice my interpretive dance routine. It's about an unappreciated angel of sexiness who was sent to this earth to do God's work through her body, intelligence, and generosity."

Holt stared at her. "That is not a valuable use of your time. You are going to accompany Santiago and I to the meeting."

Gina looked at the captain in disgust. "Fine. I'll come. But I have a few conditions. One: Amy burns all her pantsuits-"

Amy gawked in protest. "Come on Gina. I'm not even wearing one right now. Not cool."

"I'm just looking out for society, Amy. Condition two-"

This time it was Holt who interrupted Gina. "We don't have time for this. Gina you're coming with us, no conditions, or I will revoke your permission to hide in my office when Hitchcock and Scully try to show you their various skin diseases."

Gina looked appalled by this proposition. "All right, you win. Please God, never let me hear those words again."

The trio made their way over to the elevator. Just as the doors were closing Charles and Rosa slipped in. "We're on our way to arrest a perp." Rosa explained.

The doors began to close again, but this time Terry stopped them. "Terry's got to go pick his girls up from kindergarten." He stated. "Poor little things got sick, and their teacher doesn't want the rest of the class to get sick too."

The doors started to close for the third time. "Wait hold the elevator!" This time Hitchcock and Scully were running towards them. It was a strange sight for Amy, and she didn't think they'd fit very well, the elevator was pretty full already.

"Close the doors, close the doors! I will not be smushed against Hitchcock in the elevator, I refuse to go out this way!" Clearly Gina felt the same, even if only because of slightly meaner reasons.

Despite Gina's desperate attempts to get the door to close by repeatedly pushing the door close button, they made it on the elevator. Everyone was forced to squeeze together.

"Thanks for keeping the elevator open for us." Scully wasn't great at reading situations. "We just heard that the donut shop down the road is giving some away for free today!" Hitchcock and Scully high fived.

No one said anything in reply and the doors finally managed to close. The elevator made it about half way down before it jolted to a stop. "What was that?" Amy demanded.

"There must be something wrong with the elevator." Holt mused. He hit the help button on the panel. Nothing happened. He tried again, nothing happened. "There is something very wrong with the elevator."

At that moment Gina let out a wail. "NOOOOOOOO!"

Rosa looked at her in concern. "Wow you're very upset about the elevator."

Gina looked startled. "Of course I am! We've been in here for more than 30 seconds and there's no signal in here! The internet needs me!"

Amy checked her phone. Gina was right, there was no signal in the elevator. She started to feel her heart pounding in her chest. They had no way to get any help and they were stuck in this extremely tight space. Amy didn't deal with small spaces very well, and oh god, she was going to die in this elevator. Amy wrung her hands as she started to hyper-ventilate. "Some one's going to notice we're gone right?" She wasn't hiding the panic in her voice very well, she could tell from the squad's faces, but Amy didn't care. She needed some reassurance right now. "They're not going to let us die in here are they?"

Holt looked at Amy with what almost looked like sympathy on his face, it was hard to tell with him. "Relax Santiago, no one is going to die. We just need to stay calm and collected and everything will be fine."

"Yeah Amy," Charles added, "I know you're worried about Jake not being here, believe me, I am too, but in the meantime, we should use this as an opportunity for some squad bonding, maybe play some team building games. It's what he would have wanted."

Rose frowned. "Jake isn't dead Boyle. And I am not going to participate in team building games."

"Oh come on Rosa, it'll be fun. We can play two truths and a lie. I'll go first. I once ate a rare monkey's heart, it's a delicacy from Africa. Also Genevieve and I like to rub-"

Gina clamped her hand over Charles' mouth to prevent him from saying anything more. "Well as disgusting as this has been, you need to stop before I throw up in this elevator which is already filled with more gross entities than I am comfortable with." She shot a glare in Hitchcock and Scully's direction where they were sitting on the floor eating goldfish and getting crumbs everywhere as they chewed with their mouths open.

Amy weakly nodded in agreement. She didn't want to hear gross details about Charles' life that may or may not be true. She was trying to think about happy memories to keep from spiraling; Jake proposing to her, their wedding, how they were going to spend the rest of their lives together, what if that wasn't going to happen because she was stuck in this elevator, she was never going to see Jake again, oh no, this was a bad idea, now she was convinced she was going to die without ever seeing her husband again.

Terry seemed to pick up on Amy's renewed uneasiness. "Don't worry Santiago, We're going to get out of this. You'll see Jake again, I'll see my little girls…. Santiago? What is I don't get to see my baby girls again?" Terry started to cry. "They're going to grow up without a father…. I can't do that to them!"

Amy and Terry were both full on panicking now. Terry about his children, and Amy about how she was going to die in the tiny space because of claustrophobia. Holt was calmly standing in the corner trying to ignore the hubbub and wait for the elevator to start working again. Gina was loudly complaining about everyone in the corner while lamenting about the life goals she would never get to complete, like releasing a single with Cardi B or hosting her own talk show. Charles was still trying to bond with Rosa while she continued to dodge his attempts. Scully and Hitchcock were still sitting on the floor eating.

This continued for about an hour before Holt snapped. "Enough! Terry your children will be fine. Santiago, get a hold of yourself." Amy was embarrassed that the captain had to call her out like that and she shrank away from him in shame, but Holt wasn't done reprimanding people just yet. "Gina, stop complaining. And Boyle leave Rosa alone, and she will stop hitting you away. Hitchcock and Scully… are actually behaving the best out of all of you. You should be ashamed of yourselves. You are highly trained police officers and you can't even be in an elevator for an hour without turning into savages. Good, now that you're all acting like adults again, we can try to brainstorm our way out of this."

Rosa paused then looked at the ceiling. "Don't elevators have hatches in the ceiling? We can exit that way, then scale the cables."

Holt shook his head. "That wouldn't work. The hatches are looked from the outside and even if it wasn't we wouldn't be able to open the elevator doors."

Rosa just shrugged in response.

Charles was the next to offer an idea. "What if we all jumped at the same time until the elevator jolts down to the next floor and the doors open."

The words had barely left Charles' mouth before Amy was vehemently shaking her head and saying no. So many things could go wrong, and she was scared enough as it was.

Gina's plan of ripping out the buttons and rewiring the elevator was vetoed too. No one else offered anything after that. For one of the first time in the squad's history they were in a situation that was completely out of their control. There were no normal ideas that could get them out of this, and Jake wasn't there to come up with any so-stupid-that-they-work plans. Amy was sure he'd probably noticed the squad was missing by now and was very concerned about what kind of trouble he was getting himself into. But it was hard to focus on that when she was panicking about her own situation.

* * *

After a couple hours of searching every room and brainstorming, Jake still had no idea where anyone was. He'd left everyone multiple voice mails and texted them about a million times. He wanted to go out and look for them but he had no idea where they'd even be. Also he was technically the highest ranking officer in the building so he had to stay and make sure the elevator got fixed. Stupid elevator, Jake needed to go find his wife! It was working earlier today, but the damn thing just had to break. Amy probably took the elevator down to the ground floor before she left to go where ever she is now. Jake wasn't going to lie, he felt very much betrayed that no one had told him where they were going or answered his calls. Wait a second. Jake went back to his last thought. Amy had to have left the building at some point, but there would be footage on the precinct cameras that could tell him where she went. Jake rushed off to go check.

Apparently there was no footage of Amy leaving the building. It just didn't make sense. They were in the building, but he'd checked everywhere! Where could the squad have gone? Unless… Jake took a look at the broken elevator. They were in the elevator! It all made sense. It explained how they were in the building but not in any of the rooms. The elevator had no reception, so that's why they weren't answering their phones! Damn, Jake was a great detective!

Then Jake thought about the squad in the elevator. That was probably a disaster and a half. He knew Amy would be freaking out, and he could only imagine that the rest of the squad wouldn't exactly be calm city. Jake had to get them out.

After talking to the elevator repairman, he learned that it could be a few more hours before the elevator was fixed. That wasn't an option for Jake. He had to rescue his squad!

Jake collected all the materials he needed for the operation from the equipment room. He checked himself out in some of the precinct's windows as he left the room. He looked _cool_ with all the gear. Like cool enough to be in an action movie cool. That wasn't the point though. He had a wife and some friends to save. Jake paused. This sounded like it could be the premise for an action movie as well! Well, if he wasn't saving them from an elevator. Why didn't anyone film his life though? It would make for an awesome movie, or at least a great TV show. Again, not the point.

Jake got to the elevator and used some gear to pry the doors open. Who cares if he ruined the doors a tiny bit in the process? The elevator needed to be fixed anyways. Jake peered down the elevator shaft. The elevator was about a floor and a half down the shaft. After measuring out the correct amount of rope, Jake tied it to himself and a heavy table. Then he lowered himself carefully into the elevator shaft. What? Jake could be careful when he needed to! Ok, the only reason he didn't just jump right in is because he didn't want to startle anyone when he landed on the roof. He knew Amy was probably freaking out enough already and didn't want to give her a heart attack by jolting the elevator with a huge thud. He only may it half way down when his rope snapped, and he ended up doing exactly that anyways. Right on cue there was a panicked "Oh my god!" from Amy, a shriek from Gina, and a scream from... Terry?

Jake heard Holt's voice through the elevator. "Everyone remain calm. Maybe the mechanics are here, and the elevator is going to start working again."

Jake picked the lock on the hatch and swung his head in. "No mechanics, just me here to rescue you. Except my rope snapped and now I'm stuck with you." He gave them lopsided smile and lowered himself into the elevator with them.

He scanned the elevator quickly and spotted Amy looking shaky as she leaned against one of the walls. Ignoring Rosa and Gina telling him how stupid he was in their own special ways, and Boyle telling them not to get mad at him because he tried his best, and at least he cared enough to try, he made his way over to Amy and wrapped his arm around her. "Hey babe. Are you ok?"

She gave him a weak smile. "No. But I'm better now that you're here."

Jake gave her a kiss on the forehead and then looked around to see the entire elevator staring at them, Boyle a little to intently for his comfort. "Alright then," Jake muttered sarcastically. "Remind me to never do anything remotely romantic on a crowded elevator again."

"No no don't let us ruin your moment! Comfort your woman Jake! Be her knight in shining armour now, and then when this is over and you two get home-"

"Boyle!" This came from Jake, Amy, Gina, Rosa, Terry, and even Holt. No one wanted Charles to finish that sentence. Not even Hitchcock and Scully, but that was only because they had both fallen asleep.

"Does anyone know you came down here Peralta?" Holt asked.

Jake scratched behind his ear sheepishly. "Ummm, No. In hindsight, maybe not the best idea to not tell anyone. But I thought it would work so I didn't have to!"

"And how's that working out for you?" Terry demanded. Everyone turned to stare at him. "Sorry Jake. Terry gets mouthy when he's stressed."

That's when either Hitchcock, Scully or possibly both farted in their sleep. Whoever it was it didn't matter. Their bodies were disgusting, but this, this was worse. The elevator dissolved into anarchy. Everyone was fighting to be the first to get out the hatch on the roof. Gina turned on a siren noise from her phone to scare people out of the way. Rosa pulled out a knife. Boyle was kicking and screaming as Terry picked him up to use as a weapon. Jake was already pulling himself up and out, as Amy went into a couching fit in the corner and Holt simply covered his nose.

"Hey we're moving!" Jake noted from his position with his upper body out of the elevator and his lower half dangling below.

The elevator stopped moving and the doors opened to reveal the mechanics staring into the elevator in complete horror and confusion. Jake dropped down into the elevator again.

"Hey fellas! Thanks for rescuing us, we really appreciate it."

Then the squad proceeded to further express their gratitude when they nearly trampled the mechanics as they rushed out of the elevator.

* * *

Amy was too frazzled to lead her squad after the incident, so she put Officer Jensen in charge. She grabbed her laptop and made her way up to the detective's floor. She set her laptop up on her old desk and started working. Nothing could settle her nerves like some sweet, sweet paper work, and being in this familiar environment with Jake and everyone else around helped too. Jake seemed surprised to see her sitting there, but he didn't say anything, which Amy appreciated. She just wanted some quiet time and a sense of normalcy. Gina was too busy telling the internet about her perils, but how they didn't have to worry because she was fine, to notice and make a scene. Everyone else was out of the building doing whatever they would have been if the damn elevator thing hadn't happened. Except maybe Hitchcock and Scully. They were probably still sleeping in the elevator.

When it was time to go home Amy took Jake's hand and they made their way out of the building, using the stairs of course. Amy didn't want to be in another elevator for a long time. They drove in silence for a while, and they were halfway back to their apartment before anyone said anything.

"Are you okay Ames?" Jake asked from behind the steering wheel.

Amy was pulled out of her thoughts as she started out the window. "Hmmm? Yeah, I think so, or I will be at least." She paused for a while, and Jake didn't force her to say anything else. Amy loved him for that. "I just felt so helpless in there. I hate being stuck in small spaces I just start to feel like everything is closing in on me and I'm stuck. I try to plan for everything, but when you're stuck like that you have no control over anything and I just, I, I hate feeling like that you know? And then I start panicking and I spiral, and I hate that I don't have control over my emotions like that and now Holt definitely thinks I'm not fit to lead the uniformed officers and I'm going to get fired and oh my god-"

"Babe." Jake cut her off before she could ramble anymore. "It's fine. We all have moments like that. I've done the exact same thing before. And the whole squad knows how awesome you are. No one's going to judge you. Besides, if they're going to judge anyone it's me, for my botched but still really cool rescue attempt."

Amy smiled at that. "It didn't look that cool Jake. All we heard was a thud and then you were poking your head through the roof."

Jake frowned. "Well you didn't see me lowering my self down the elevator shaft, _Amy_. It was cool."

"Sure," Amy laughed. The tension in the car was broken. Jake was so good at making Amy feel better. Amy swore he had a gift.

They spent the rest of the ride home singing along to their favourite songs. Jake was gracious enough to let Amy pick most of the songs. She would have been concerned if he hadn't snuck in some Taylor Swift songs though. Jake's version of "Ready For It" made her smile more than anything else had that day. God knew she was definitely going to have a cigarette when she got home to deal with the stress that had came from the day, but as Amy watched Jake sign along with the next song she realised how lucky she was to have Jake. If it wasn't for him she'd be smoking already. Amy knew that situations like this would happen again, it was the line of work, and beyond that, it was their precinct. Amy wouldn't trade any of it in though. She loved her squad, and she definitely loved Jake. With Jake Peralta by her side Amy Santiago knew she could get through anything.

* * *

 **A/N: And there we go end of this little story. Some of you have probably realized by now that this was based off the post where Joe asked what would happen if the 99 got stuck in an elevator. I know he posted that over a month ago, but I've also had to deal with school, and well, quality takes time. So hope you enjoyed, any feed back is welcome. Thanks for taking the time out of your day to read this.**

 **See you later,**

 **BlankPage-CleanSlate :)**


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